The Emergency Management Australia (EMA) definition of a disaster is:
“A serious disruption to community life which threatens death or injury in that community and/or damage to property which is beyond the day-to-day capacity of the prescribed statutory authorities and which requires special mobilisation and organisation of resources other than those normally available to those authorities.”
This is a helpful definition, especially in its emphasis on the effect on community life and the need for help beyond a community’s normal support structures. This definition does not name a scale of death or destruction, rather the threat or affect on the community’s capacity to cope with a tragic occurrence. A fatal car crash or house fire, may be traumatic for a community but it does not constitute a ‘disaster’. A bus or train crash, factory or hospital fire involving dozens of deaths, injuries or evacuations requiring extra “emergency” measures for coping and recovery does.
The Synod of NSW and ACT Disaster Plan states that:
“The declaration of a ‘disaster’ presupposes an event of such magnitude as to overwhelm the local resources for coping and survival.” Local networks must be supplemented by outside help that is coordinated and strategic and which does not put added strain on local coping resources.
In NSW, Part 4 of the State Emergency and Rescue Management Act defines emergency thus…
Emergency means an emergency due to an actual or imminent occurrence (such as fire, flood, storm, earthquake, explosion, terrorist act, accident, epidemic or warlike action) which:
Disaster Recovery is now understood to be a community development process rather than as a welfare activity. Communities recover best when they manage their own recovery with outside agencies supplying information, support and resources to help disaster-affected people make their own decisions to aid recovery. This understanding is central to the New South Wales State Government Disaster Recovery Plan (DISPLAN) and its corresponding Disaster Recovery Human Services Functional Area Supporting Plan 2006 http://www.emergency.nsw.gov.au/content.php/565.html
The leading agency coordinating welfare and recovery response is the NSW Department of Community Services (DoCS). For their disaster recovery fact sheet see http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/DOCS/STANDARD/DISASTER.html
Since the mid-1970s the main thrust of the New South Wales Churches’ preparation for disaster intervention has been through the State Government’s Disaster Welfare Coordinating Committee (DWCC), now known as the State Disaster Recovery Committee which is responsible for the State Disaster Recovery (Welfare Service) Plan.
To ensure that resources are mobilised effectively this plan has designated community partnership/lead organisation roles to key volunteer welfare bodies.
• ADRA (Seventh Day Adventist Church) — emergency accommodation
• Salvation Army — catering
• St Vincent de Paul Society — material and personal needs
• Australian Red Cross — personal support
• Anglicare plays a support role to each of these organisations where support is required.
The Uniting Church also believes that “recovery” in the medium- to long-term is important. And that people’s spiritual recovery must be attended to through pastoral care. In times of affliction, the church, through prayer and ritual, worship, fellowship and pastoral presence, helps people experience the conviction that God is there, that life is bearable, and the universe can be a friendly place.